Best Bar for an Adult Birthday Party (2012)

Another year has passed, and you're trying to figure out a place that isn't Edendale (i.e., the Chuck E. Cheese of Silver Lake) to invite all your Facebook friends to buy you a birthday drink. Have you thought of Jumbo's Clown Room? Once saddled with a reputation (well-deserved) as one of the sleaziest stripper spots in town, these days, as far as strip clubs on a relatively gentrification-resistant stretch of Hollywood Boulevard go, Jumbo's is actually rather intimate and kind of quaint. The vibe in this small, red-walled room is notably less lecherous than you might expect: The talent consists of tattooed-and-pierced postgrads shimmying out of corsets to Radiohead and The Stranglers. The girls don't work the room hustling for dances, and instead of a beefy male DJ spinning "Sister Christian," the dancers choose their own music. The place thus attracts both a sizable female clientele and a variety of dude patron who seems to be happy to be at a strip club where women aren't weirded out. 5153 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd. (323) 666-1187, jumbos.com.